I know there are many articles around dealing with this topic, but still, many beginners do repeat the same mistakes over and over again. Not only beginners but experienced trainees do it too. To train for 10 or more years without achieving any praiseworthy physique it’s a sure sign of doing something wrong. They probably think they know it all, but obviously they’re failing in certain things. They obviously don’t know or have forgotten the fundamental rules of bodybuilding. So if you think you’re doing it all right, but the results aren’t there – you might want to read my top bodybuilding rules and see what are you missing on the way of building your perfect physique.

I’m sure you all know that guy, ‘cause almost every gym has at least one. It’s the “smartest” guy in the gym. It’s the guy who is always ready to give you some advice how you should train or eat. He especially likes “helping” the beginners because serious bodybuilders wouldn’t pay attention on him. He’s in training for 100 years but his physique is all, except impressive. We call that guy The King of The Gym.

Sounds familiar?

I’m sure you’ve run into that guy at least once. And if you’re a beginner, he might even convince you to follow his advices. Things he says might seem to be reasonable at the first, but the next thing you should do is to ask yourself why doesn’t he look so great after all? Many of them fall under his influence and start to do things wrong. And once you go in that direction, it’s hard to turn back.

This is what I want to warn you : DON’T LISTEN TO THAT GUY! Different people can often lead you to the wrong directions so don’t listen to everybody. If the results doesn’t stay behind what he is saying, you’re probably asking the wrong guy for advice.

Every good bodybuilder has his own way of training and dieting routine, but there are some rules that everybody must obey to become successful bodybuilders. Bodybuilders often can disagree in certain things, but this top bodybuilding rules are the same for everybody:

1. BELIVE IN YOURSELF

I consider this as the main rule. If you’re prone to give up every time when things go in unwanted directions, then you have no future in this sport. Bodybuilding doesn’t tolerate quitters. People can slow you down on your way to success telling your goals are unrealistic and ridiculous. That’s why you must believe in yourself and know in your heart that you can and will achieve that physique you want. Visualize your goals and work towards them , don’t let other things distract you.

2. CHANGE YOUR LIFESTYE

Believing that you can do serious bodybuilding and still maintain your old lifestyle is wrong. You have to live bodybuilding every day, and that doesn’t leave you plenty of time to do other stuff. You can forget partying, living sleepless nights and drinking alcohol. That just doesn’t go together with bodybuilding. Guess you’ll have to make priorities in your life, and see what’s more important to you. You can’t sit on two chairs simultaneously.

3. TRAIN HARD

Everybody thinks they train hard, but most of them still haven’t tried what hard training actually is. The muscle must be shocked every time you work out so it can adapt to greater stress. The muscle reacts to stress in a way that it grows. So if there isn’t enough stimulation to grow, muscle has no reason to grow. It’s quite simple in theory. That’s why bodbuilders use workout techniques like forced reps, drop sets, super sets… To shock muscles. But they shouldn’t be done all the times because they will lose that shocking ability. Give your best on every single workout, don’t make excuses, and the results shouldn’t lack. It’s OK to have a spotter when lifting heavy and when performing forced reps, but many guys overuse it. They load the bar with too much weight and they aren’t able to do at least few reps on their own, so the spotter has to lift for them. That’s certainly not the way to go. Spotter should be there for you only to help you out with few last reps, but you should be the one lifting 95% of the weight.

4. LIFT HEAVY BUT WITH PROPER FORM

It takes heavy weight to build muscle mass and density. The ideal range of repetitions per one set is from 6 – 10 for hypertrophy. So that means that you should go as heavy as you can maintaining that range of reps. Also is not the same if you’re curling, let’s say, 120 pounds using proper form; or if you’re curling 200 pounds swinging the bar with the whole body. That way your shoulders and lower back are moving most of the weight and not your biceps, so as you can see, you’re not going anywhere with that kind of training. Using the strict form you’re ensuring that your targeted muscle is doing most of the work. It would be ideally if we could completely isolate the targeted muscle, but that’s impossible, at least when we’re using free weights.

5. NUTRITION IS EVERYTHING

You may train as hard as you like but if you don’t eat well, you won’t go so far. This is why this sport is so hard. You can often hear bodybuilders say: “Lifting is the easy part, and nutrition is heavy.” Do you agree? You need to be consistent and dedicated with your eating the same as you are with your training. Preparing your meals and eating every 2 – 3 hours takes a lot of time, but it’s inevitable if you want to make something out of this. It’s not important only to eat, but to eat quality foods. Having a good nutrition plan is very important in mass building period as in definition period also. Leaving your body without proteins for more than few hours will lead to catabolism – process when you start losing your hard earned gains.

6. GIVE YOUR BODY TIME TO RECOVER

Although you look big and swollen, your muscles don’t grow during the workout. You brake the muscle tissues during the workout so it could grow stronger for the next time . It can only grow when you rest, so it’s important to give your muscles enough time to recover. Sleeping at least 8 hours per days is crucial for your gains. Also take little naps when you can, during the day.

7. SUPPLEMENTS ARE GOOD

Although food is the most important part of your nutrition, you should give a credit to the supplements too. Protein powders are great when you need a quick protein meal in your body, creatine and glutamine allow you to train harder and recover faster. I know supplement stores can often offer you all kinds of rubbish products, but some of them you should give a try : multivitamins, fish oil and joint formula are certainly one of them.

8. DON’T TAKE ROIDS

Steroids do work, there’s no doubt about that. But believing that they will do all the work for you is wrong. People who train hard can achieve lot more with smaller doses , then people who use higher doses but don’t train as hard. So why to endanger your health when you’re not prepared to give all your best in the gym. Think twice before you start with those.

Bodybuilding is a great sport and the more you give, the more it will be returned to you. Follow this rules and you won’t regret. Give your best in every area and the results won’t lack. But be aware that it takes time and you can’t succeed over night. Wish you all the best on your way to the top.